THE two boys who died in the Loch Gairloch canoe tragedy were brothers and the man who is still missing is their father.

Northern Constabulary confirmed that two families, who have not been named, were involved in the incident.

Both families are from the East Highland area, police said. The boys were aged three and five.

It's understood the victims were part of a group of six - two adults and four children - who were onboard a six-man boat when it overturned near Ullapool in the Highlands, yesterday afternoon.

A five-year-old girl was reportedly found wearing a buoyancy aide but was face down in the water. She was airlifted to Broadford Hospital before being transferred overnight by rescue helicopter to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill in Glasgow, where her parents are said to be with her.

Local boats yesterday assisted rescue services in the search for a missing 32-year-old man, which continued into the night in the water near the Big Sands caravan park in Gairloch.

Police and Stornoway coastguard confirmed they had resumed their search this morning.

Lifeboats from Lochinver and Portree are involved in the operation, as well as members of the Red Cross.

Yesterday, a 35-year-old man and an eight-year-old girl managed to swim to shore unscathed and alerted Stornoway Coastguard to the incident at around 4.15pm.

The girl was uninjured and is being cared for by relatives, police said.

A helicopter and lifeboats from Portree, Gairloch and Loch Ewe launched a search and found the three children in the water.

Police said the group were in a Canadian canoe, a narrow boat designed to carry numerous passengers.

Inquiries into the incident are being carried out.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the search has now become a recovery mission.

Gairloch and Lochinver Coastguard rescue teams have been searching the shoreline and outlying islands, helped by other local vessels and the Portree and Lochinver RNLI lifeboats.

Rain and winds are forecast for much of the day in the area and choppy seas are understood to have made conditions more difficult for the teams.

Carol Collins, Stornoway Coastguard watch manager, said: "The weather is less favourable for searching today than yesterday but units have been out searching since first light.

"Sadly at this stage the search and rescue phase has now moved to a recovery mission."

Earlier, Murdo Macaulay, of Stornoway Coastguard, said it was not yet known what caused the boat to capsize.

He told Sky News: "The actual vessel itself was what's called a Canadian canoe, an open canoe.

"The area around Big Sands is very popular with tourists. A lot of water sports generally take place there.

"To our knowledge there are no particular hazards in that area, sea-wise. It's not particularly remote by west coast standards. We had a lot of craft in the area yesterday who responded and were involved in yesterday's rescue operation."

James Cameron, 34, who co-runs the Sands Caravan and Camping site in Gairloch, Wester Ross, told how he and a friend became involved in yesterday's rescue mission and managed to locate the five-year-old girl in the water.

He said: "I happened to be out in the boat yesterday when I heard there was an incident.

"We were just coming in and heard there was a girl missing, so we went out and actually found her.

"We found her face down, she was unconscious. She had her buoyancy aid on, it was keeping her afloat but it wasn't keeping her head out the water.

"We took her in and we did try our best to resuscitate her. The Coastguard helicopter then picked her up off the boat and took her away to Broadford Hospital."

Mr Cameron said there is a lot of activity in the area today as the search continues for the missing man.

"The local boats and Coastguard are still out searching for the missing man, but they're assuming it's going to be a recovery rather than a rescue," he said.

"I think the people involved were on a day trip from Beauly and Muir of Ord. There were two dads and four kids."